


Bandit

by Nigaki



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Arthur Morgan in glasses, Arthur is a softy, Emo John Marston, Established Relationship, Fluff and Humor, John is also a softy pretending to be an edgy emo boy, M/M, Married Couple, Pets, mention of animal abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:29:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27460477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nigaki/pseuds/Nigaki
Summary: “That’s not a cat.”“Congratulations, Arthur, you’re as smart as a three years old. That’s indeed not a cat.”
Relationships: John Marston/Arthur Morgan
Comments: 6
Kudos: 36





	Bandit

**Author's Note:**

> Remember my story about coffee shop owner Arthur and his emo husband? This is the continuation.

“I’m home!” Arthur announced after entering his and John’s house. He closed the door behind himself and threw both house and car keys on the cupboard near the entrance. He was surprised when neither John or their dog came to welcome him. 

Arthur checked if John’s shoes and Jigsaw’s leash were where they were supposed to and they were. So they had to be home. Maybe they were in the backyard and didn’t hear him?

Shedding his jacket he headed to the living room with intent to find his husband and he came to halt right in the doorway. He had a sudden urge to check his glasses because he surely wasn’t seeing correctly right now but doing something like that would be stupid so he just adjusted them higher on his nose and pointed at a little bundle his husband, whom he found sitting on the floor by the couch, was holding with care in his arms.

“That’s not a cat.”

John loved cats but Arthur was allergic so they never had one. That didn’t stop the younger man from picking up strays from time to time and finding them home though. But what he was holding now wasn't a cat.

John snorted. “Congratulations, Arthur, you’re as smart as a three years old,” he mocked, rocking the animal in his arms as if it was a human baby. “That’s indeed not a cat.”

“Smartass.” Rolling his eyes, Arthur entered the living room and stopped in front of his husband. “I was just checking. I know animals, you on the other hand, not always. Like the last time when you were as high as a kite and called a horse a cow.”

A faint blush appeared on John’s cheeks. “It had spots,” he explained himself, hugging the bundle closer to his chest.

“Yes, John, some horses have spots, that doesn’t make them cows.”

John waved his hands dismissively, careful to not drop the animal in his hold. “Potayto, potahto.”

“No it’s fucking not.” Grunting, Arthur sat down next to him on the floor, laying the jacket he was holding on the couch. “So why is there a baby raccoon in our house?”

Only the head was sticking out of the blanket John had it wrapped in and what could be seen didn’t look good. Arthur had to be very careful while scratching its head because there was some blood on it and he wasn't sure where it was coming from. One of its eyes definitely didn’t look good though, it was closed shut and bleeding.

The raccoon sniffed the air around Arthur’s hand but otherwise didn’t react to the touch. It was most likely in pain and scared. It looked small enough to still be with its mother. John certainly didn’t steal a baby from its den so there must’ve been more to that story. 

“I was walking Jigsaw at the park when I saw some young punks torturing this poor thing,” he recalled, his voice hanging somewhere between fondness when he spoke about the raccoon and anger caused by the dickheads that decided it would be fun to harm an animal. “So I tortured them back.”

As much as Arthur felt pride for his husband, he had to sigh in irritation.

“Please tell me you didn’t end in a fist fight and the police won’t be calling to our doors because of it,” he asked. “Again.”

John smirked at him. “Nah, they ran away when I yelled at them,” he assured Arthur and snickered. “Pussies. I hit one with Jigsaw’s ball.”

The ball in question was laying near Jigsaw’s dog bed but the dog was nowhere to be seen still.

“You’ve been to a vet yet?” Arthur asked, scratching the raccoon’s small head again. It bumped against it and whimpered pitifully.

“You had the car, I couldn’t go on the bus like that.”

“Like being a weirdo ever stopped you before. You have more metal on your face than there is in a junkyard.”

John huffed. “I have literally three piercings,” he pointed out. “Two of which are in my ears.” Arthur was actually surprised, usually there was more but right now he only had one in his eyebrow. Wouldn’t that mean John would have to get his face pierced again if he let the holes heal? “Besides.” Arthur got back to the matter at hand. “It’s not about being weird, I didn’t want to scare the baby with so many people.”

John cooed at the raccoon, using the softest voice usually reserved only for Jigsaw and Arthur.

Arthur patted his knee and stood up. “Alright, move your ass, we’re going.” He picked up his jacket and put it back on. 

“We can’t go to the normal vet, they’ll try to take Bandit,” John noticed, panicked, once again holding the raccoon for dear life.

Bandit. What a typical name for a raccoon.

“Are you trying to tell me you want to keep that raccoon?” he asked but didn’t wait for an answer. “Why am I even asking, you already named him.”

John frowned at him. “Bandit is a lady.”

Arthur raised his hands in surrender. “My mistake, sorry my lady,” he said and bowed dramatically in front of the raccoon.

John smiled sweetly. “She needs us. She’ll be our baby.”

Arthur wasn’t sure if he wanted to have a raccoon in his house but he wasn't even surprised John came up with such an idea.

“Jigsaw is our baby,” he reminded his husband.

“You can have more than one baby, babe.”

Arthur sighed again. He had no doubt that John would take care of the raccoon, he didn’t look like that but he was very responsible, especially when it was coming to animals. They both have a soft spot for them and Jigsaw was the biggest example. He was probably the most spoiled dog in the whole town, if not the whole county. And Arthur could start working second shifts to take care of Bandit(god damn it, he was already using that name, he was gone) while John would have classes at the uni in the morning. Hell, he was the boss, he could have the entire day free if he wanted. He worked because he liked it and hated putting pressure on his employees. But if he would have to take care of such a small raccoon baby, free days might be essential for a while.

But how does one care for a raccoon?

“Do you even know how to take care of a raccoon?” he asked that question out loud. Maybe his husband already had an answer.

“I’ll learn,” John promised with determination in his voice. “I already learned they make great pets.”

Arthur squinted his eyes in suspicion. He had no idea how long John was waiting for him but he definitely never let go of Bandit to go to the library and pick a book about raccoons.

“From where?”

“I watched at least a dozen of funny raccoon videos on YouTube while waiting for you,” John answered with a straight face.

Arthur wanted to tell he was surprised but he wasn’t. At all. He looked over John, noticing his phone laying on the floor. Some YouTube video was still playing and showing a raccoon in someone’s house.

“Of course you did,” he said with a fond smile. His husband was ridiculous. “What did I expect?”

“Can we go?” John urged them. “I cleaned her eye but it doesn’t look good. She needs help. I already called Charles, he said he’ll take us in.”

Charles was their mutual friend, a veterinarian who owned one of the local clinics and worked for the stable outside of the town. Arthur had no idea if Charles knew anything about wild animals but if he agreed to help then he apparently had the necessary knowledge. And what’s important, he wouldn’t call the raccoon in. 

“Give me her and put your shoes on.”

John grinned at him and, with some problems because of his full hands, got up from the floor and handled the raccoon burrito into Arthur’s arms.

“You’re the best,” he said after a quick kiss on the cheek and rushed to get his shoes on.

“I know,” Arthur answered and looked down at Bandit. He had to admit, she looked cute.

It took John some time to get ready, it tends to happen when you have to put on heavy military boots with miles long shoelaces. He still was faster than ever and soon they were sitting in their car, going to Charles’ clinic.

“Where was Jigsaw anyway?” Arthur asked when he stopped at the red light. “Don’t tell me he got scared of a little raccoon.”

Jigsaw was fearless and very protective, Arthur was sure he would attack a bear if he had to, he wouldn’t believe their precious baby would be scared of a tiny raccoon.

“I told him to stay away in case this little gal has rabies,” John explained, gently stroking Bandit’s muzzle while impatiently tapping his foot on the floor when the red light took forever to change.

“She didn’t bite you, right?” Arthur asked, concerned.

“No and she didn’t scratch me either.” Arthur nodded, calmed down. “I had her first in my jacket and then in a blanket this whole time. Jigsaw wanted to sniff at her and I was afraid either he or her would bite so I closed him in the backyard.”

That’s why his baby didn’t come to greet him.

Charles’s clinic was a little busy at this time of the day. People came after work to have their pets treated and some of them looked at Arthur and his husband funny when they entered with a raccoon. Some of them were probably taken aback by John too. Bothered by his looks or not, peoples’ eyes were naturally drawn to his black clothes, piercing, make up and tattoos. Arthur looked almost comically next to him in his jacket, soft sweater, simple jeans and without any ink tracing his skin or piercing in his face. The only things in their looks they had in common were identical golden wedding bands on their ring fingers. 

“Oh hey, guys!” The receptionist, Tilly, welcomed them when it was their turn. “Another stray cat?”

“I wish,” Arthur replied, making John snort in amusement. “It’s a racoon.”

“Her name is Bandit,” John informed right away while Tilly leaned across her desk to have a better look.

“Aww, what a cute baby.” John already looked like a proud father. If Arthur wasn’t already convinced to let his husband keep the raccoon, he would now. “Charles mentioned you would bring a pet soon but he didn’t tell me it would be a raccoon.”

Arthur smiled. “I didn’t expect a raccoon when I came home either,” he pointed out, making Tilly laugh.

“Well, Charles is awaiting you so just go through the door.” She pointed at the double door leading to the examination area.

Inside, four vets were taking care of various pets with their owners worrying next to them but Arthur and John didn’t pay them much attention, their eyes only on Charles who was at the very end, examining a very impressive looking Great Dane.

“Her leg healed nicely,” they heard Charles say when they got closer. “But it’s better to still wait with long walks for now.” Their friend noticed them then and nodded in greeting. “Another week should be good.”

“Thank you doc.”

After Charles picked up the Dane without any problem and put her on the floor, she and her owner left, both happy and eager to get out.

“Hey,” Charles greeted them again while removing his gloves. He hugged Arthur after but a simple shoulder squeeze and a smile had to be enough for John who was still holding Bandit. “That’s Bandit?’

“How many raccoons were you expecting us to bring today?” Arthur joked and along with John followed Charles to the examining table. The nurse already cleaned it after the Dane. John placed Bandit gently on the surface. She looked around a little, hiding inside her blanket.

“I already had a fox brought in today, a second raccoon wouldn’t be that much of a surprise,” Charles answered with a smile, carefully unwrapping Bandit. John stood close to watch everything and Arthur was right next to him, offering his support in a form of handholding. “Very cute fox, John would like it.”

“Don’t put any ideas in his head, please,” Arthur asked when he noticed John perking up at the mention of a fox.

Charles chuckled and started the examination when Bandit was finally free of her cocoon. Arthur wasn’t aware how bad she looked under the blanket, there was dried blood on her fur and some of the cuts were still open. The eye was the worst of course and compared to it, the rest of her body didn’t look that bad but that was a very poor silver lining. What the hell those teenagers did to her? If it was already this bad, he didn’t want to think what they would’ve done next if John didn’t stop them.

“Will she be alright?” his husband asked, a concern loud and clear in his voice. Arthur squeezed his hand tighter.

“The cuts don't look bad but if she was beaten or kicked she may have something broken,” Charles said, hovering over Bandit and touching her gently. “We’ll do an x-ray but I'm mostly worried about her eye.”

Bandit struggled in his grip when he tried to look at the eyes closely. They way she moved, without any pain, indicated that she had nothing broken but they couldn’t be sure. Maybe her eye hurt more than a broken bone.

Wary of her tiny teeth, Charles examined her eye despite Bandit protesting loudly. Arthur and John both tensed hearing her cries.

“I can’t tell for sure without cleaning it but I don’t think I can save it,” he said after a while. “I think she’ll be blind in that one eye for the rest of her life. No living in the wild for her.”

“John was going to keep her anyway,” Arthur informed.

“Well, I was going to give her the chance to get back to the wild and use our house as a hotel before she was ready,” John explained. “You think I would want to keep a wild animal just for fun?”

“Sometimes it’s hard to tell with you,” Arthur answered and bumped into him lightly with his arm. John huffed but with a smile.

For a moment they actually forgot that Charles was watching them. He was used to it thankfully. Bandit’s helpless whimper was what brought their attention back to her and him.

“Okay, so she will be blind, what about surviving everything else?” John asked. He kept his hand on a table and Arthur could see how his fingers itched to pet Bandit, squished gently under Charles’ big hand so she couldn’t move and run away. 

“It looks worse than it is,” Charles said, checking some of the wounds again. Bandit hissed and Arthur had to smile at that. She was a fierce girl. “One or two are rather deep but nothing life threatening. I’ll give her an x-ray, clean all the wounds, give her something for her eyes and leave her here for an observation.”

“She can’t go back with us?” John whined, disappointed.

“I need to be sure she doesn’t have rabies, John.” John was still pouting. Arthur wrapped an arm around his shoulder and tucked his husband against himself to make him feel better. “Or if she doesn’t have any parasites. She will have to stay here for a few days. It’ll give her time to recover too.”

Arthur held John tighter because for a few short moments he looked like he was going to grab Bandit back and run away with her. Then his body relaxed and leaned into Arthur. “Fine,” he agreed, as if he had anything to say in Charles' decision. “But then we can take her home?”

“I’m still surprised you want a raccoon in your home,” Charles admitted with a smile. “They're a handful.”

“Hey, so they’re just like you,” Arthur said to John, earning an elbow to the ribs for this. Smiling through the pain, Arthur chuckled and kissed John on the cheek to console him. “I didn’t say it was bad.”

“You better not,” John threatened him, but without any real malice. He then turned to their friend who once again had to witness their affection. “Thanks for taking her in, Charles. Some other vet might’ve reported it.”

“It’s actually not illegal to own a raccoon here.” Bandit didn’t struggle anymore in Charles' grasp, the injuries and her fighting earlier must’ve tired her out. She was so small and young, she probably shouldn’t be out of the den yet. Either she was dragged out of its safety or her mother abandoned her for some reason. “You just need a permit. You two should get yourself one while I’ll nurse this lady to health.”

“You hear that, Arthur?” John grinned at him. “We’ll get a permit to keep Bandit with us.”

“Good, because I was starting to worry what Milton would do if he found out we own a raccoon illegally.”

Milton was a FBI agent that lived next to them. He hated them for some reason since they moved into their neighborhood. He never really told why so it could be either because they were gay and married at that or because he just thought John was a freak of nature. Maybe because of both. Either way, he would be very happy to use Bandit against them. 

John rolled his eyes. “This moron wouldn’t probably know if it was legal or not.”

“He could check it out. And he will. Be ready for him to knock on our door and ask if we have a permit.”

“I’ll happily punch him with one,” John answered smugly and turned back to Charles. “I’ll be calling every day to check on her.”

“I’ll have to throw my phone away then.”

John looked at Charles unimpressed and then glared at grinning Arthur.

There was no reason for them to stay longer so when Charles reminded them that he still had to take care of Bandit, they left the clinic after saying goodbye to Tilly.

Once in a car, John started talking about filling in the application for the permit once they would get home and then about looking on the laptop for everything they would need for her.

“We’ll need a cat door leading to the backyard,” he said looking out of the window so he didn’t notice Arthur nodding to his request. The lack of verbal response didn’t stop him from talking though. “And a litter box. A cat tree too. Something she could climb on.”

“Sure,” Arthur agreed. He was never good at denying John anything, unless it was stupid or dangerous. That’s why he had no problem with letting him keep a raccoon, which was neither.

John turned to him and smiled. “Raccoons like water, think we can dig her a pool to swim in?”

Arthur smiled back despite being too focused on the road to turn to John. “Why not.”

John’s smile grew. “And we need to build her a house in the backyard to sleep in at night,” he continued making a list. “A nice warm house with a second floor. We will surround it and a patch of land with a net. I don’t want some eagle to get her while we can’t keep an eye on her. Or some wild raccoon to harm her. Or a fox.”

“You already have everything planned, do you?” Arthur teased, finally turning to his husband when they stopped on the red light.

“Since I took her in my arms at the park,” John admitted, grinning. “Told you I watched a lot of videos already. You know what cool stuff people have for their raccoons?”

Amused, Arthur shook his head. “I can believe I agreed to this. Couldn’t you pick up something normal? Like a ferret?”

John’s eyes light. “Can we have a ferret?” he asked eagerly.

Arthur raised his hand to stop his husband before he could rush forward with another idea for a pet. “One animal at the time.”

Maybe he should’ve just said ‘no’ because it didn’t exactly lower John’s excitement.

“I’ll remind you about this in a year,” he promised with a cheeky smile.

“You don’t have such a good memory,” Arthur noted and pressed on the pedal when he could drive again.

John didn’t stop smiling and grabbed Arthur’s hand which was resting between their seats. “Love you.”

Arthur slowed down just so he could turn his head to his husband and return his smile. “Love you too.”

After two weeks and getting a permit surprisingly quickly(maybe not a lot of people around here wanted to own a wild animal), Bandit went home with them, still in need to drink kitten formula but Charles said some solid food was fine too. 

In the end, it wasn't such a bad idea to adopt a raccoon. On their first movie night after getting Bandit, they were cuddled on the couch together, with John tucked under Arthur’s arm and occasionally hand feeding him popcorn because John had the bowl next to him, far away from Arthur’s reach. Arthur didn’t mind even one bit. 

Usually the bowl would be in the lap of one of them while the other would have a dog in his but today both of their laps were occupied. Jigsaw, their West Highland White Terrier, was napping in John’s lap while Bandit was doing the same in Arthur’s. Both animals were being petted while the two men enjoyed the movie, each others’ company and their pets on a quiet Friday night.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm obsessed with raccoons. I blame my mutual, John being a raccoon and that one art of him holding a raccoon. 🦝🦝🦝


End file.
